Projektbeschrieb

In the northeast of Brazil, in the state of Bahia, is Helvécia, a small village originated from two farms (Helvetia I e II) of Johann Martin Flach - a Swiss born in Schaffhausen (on 24/11/1787) who became a close friend and confidant of the Royale Princess Leopoldina and who received lands from the former gorvernament to join the Leopoldina-Frankenthal colony. In the early of 1850, this colony was responsible of 90% of the Brazilian coffee exportation on the strength of 2000 slaves from Africa. After the colony’s economic decline due to slave abolition, the farm's name has lasted (with the Brazilian form of Helvetia) and became the village’s name. Today, Helvécia is home to three families descendants of German and one of Swiss origin. More than 80% of the population, however, are of African descendants. Both European and African cultures survive in a ideological confrontation, where Christian evangelicals still point black people as evil in their speech.